Taiwan, 1954. The era of brutal crackdowns on political dissent known as the White Terror is at its height. When Yue (Caitlin Fang) learns her brother has been executed by the Kuomintang government, she sets out alone for Taipei to reclaim his body. On the road she narrowly escapes an abduction thanks to Kung-tao (Will Or), a foul-mouthed Cantonese rickshaw driver and war veteran with troubles of his own. He decides to help her, yet neither of them knows what Yue’s simple wish will cost.

An unlikely friendship develops between Yue and Kung-tao, but with secret police lurking around every corner, their new bond is built on thin ice. Like Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A City of Sadness, A Foggy Tale excavates this fraught chapter of Taiwanese history from a modest position, where even the smallest act of quiet defiance carries an unbearable price under state violence.

The latest release by multi-award winning filmmaker Chen Yu-hsun, the film earned 11 Golden Horse Award nominations, including a Best Leading Actor nod for Hong Kong star Will Or, and took home several wins, among them Best Narrative Film and Best Original Screenplay.

Taiwan | 2025 | Colour | 134’ | In Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien with Chinese and English subtitles

About Hong Kong Film Festival UK

Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns for its fourth edition from 25 September to 4 October in London, presenting reflective and shape-shifting cinema from Hong Kong, the wider Asian diaspora and beyond, marking the start of a more year-round festival. This year’s programme foregrounds diaspora as agency — behind the camera, on screen and between communities. Across contemporary and historical cinema, artists’ moving image and interdisciplinary art practices, the festival moves through questions of migration, colonisation, activism and gender. Together, these works reshape ideas of memory and community.

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